Jaw-Dropping Whale Portraits (PHOTOS)

Published Jun 18 2014 04:02 PM EDT

weather.com

Bryant Austin, photographer and author of "Beautiful Whale," was inspired to take amazing life-size portraits of the marine mammals after an adult humpback whale got his attention while he was snorkeling in the South Pacific.

"I felt a single, yet solid tap on my shoulder. I knew it was too solid of a tap to be human," Austin told Weather.com over e-mail. "Filled with dread, I turned to look and was eye-to-eye with an adult humpback whale. She had reached out her 15-foot-long, two ton pectoral fin to let me know she was behind me."

It was that moment that Austin, who was already a whale and photography enthusiast, kicked off his six-year effort to recreate the experience of the "emotional effect one feels while floating next to the eye of an inquisitive whale" through his photos.

In order to capture these moments, Austin spent several months with small groups of whales. When the whale moves to a distance less than six feet away, he is able to capture the mammals in great detail with his telephoto portrait lens.

Timing is key when snapping these creatures in action. According to Austin, whales are greatly affected by weather conditions.

"Here on the Monterey Bay, the high spring and summer winds create massive upwellings that attract krill for blue, humpback, and many other baleen whale species to feed upon," Austin explained. "In the South Pacific, humpback whales arrive from the very stormy Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica where in countries such as the Kingdom of Tonga, they find calm, shallow, warm tropical waters to give birth and prepare their young for their first journey back to the Southern Ocean."

To establish a familiarity with the animals he wears the same items of clothing and keeps his movements predictable.

Austin chooses the best 15 to 20 images and puts them together using Adobe Photoshop. The largest photo he has ever created measured 10 x 36 feet.

He is now preparing to photograph killer whales in the Arctic Circle next year.

"I want to explore the possibility of creating a high resolution, life-size composite photograph of a killer whale and see if I can effectively capture emotion expressed in their eye."

For more of Austin’s work, visit his website at StudioCosmos.com. "Beautiful Whale," Austin’s first photography book, is due out April 2, 2013.